Atheist Nexus2017-08-18T04:04:04ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRioshttp://api.ning.com/files/D2n8sT8iSTNMMDz7ZoY7X7dkykJGkuwZXjyt8Tg*Ir1DzIkLRurzXGNsRLkZjs9a*fCrfnntMu0-lvnqoR4oIXKv*W-AluBo/100_3778.JPG?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://atheistnexus.org/group/thebrights/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=09smu4ockianr&feed=yes&xn_auth=noDemon Possession, the Apostle Paul, and Epilepsytag:atheistnexus.org,2011-11-30:2182797:Topic:17533582011-11-30T12:19:44.610ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>On my YouTube channel, I am beginning a series of videos exploring the hypothesis that the visions, hyper-religiosity, dramatic religious conversion, and perhaps even hypo-sexuality, of the Apostle Paul were due to temporal lobe epilepsy.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDKAEVl06w">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDKAEVl06w</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>On my YouTube channel, I am beginning a series of videos exploring the hypothesis that the visions, hyper-religiosity, dramatic religious conversion, and perhaps even hypo-sexuality, of the Apostle Paul were due to temporal lobe epilepsy.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDKAEVl06w">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDKAEVl06w</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div> Is anyone else going to the rally?tag:atheistnexus.org,2010-10-18:2182797:Topic:10064532010-10-18T15:08:46.422ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
<p>John Stewart is hosting a rally at the Capital Mall. </p>
<p>I think it will be a lot of fun!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>John Stewart is hosting a rally at the Capital Mall. </p>
<p>I think it will be a lot of fun!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> Brights Movement reported in Sacramento local paper.tag:atheistnexus.org,2010-08-05:2182797:Topic:9350802010-08-05T14:30:07.497ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
The Brights Movement was featured in a Sacramento local paper. There is a ton of good stuff in the article!<br></br><br></br>&lt;b&gt;Feature Story&lt;/b&gt; (link)<br></br><br></br>The Bright side<br></br>Is atheism going mainstream? One local group says yes, presents a new option for nonbelievers.<br></br><br></br>&lt;i&gt;Paul Geisert doesn’t believe in God, but he didn’t exactly want people to hate him for it. And so there he was, in the fall of 2002, contemplating plans to attend a march in Washington, D.C.,…
The Brights Movement was featured in a Sacramento local paper. There is a ton of good stuff in the article!<br/><br/>&lt;b&gt;Feature Story&lt;/b&gt; (link)<br/><br/>The Bright side<br/>Is atheism going mainstream? One local group says yes, presents a new option for nonbelievers.<br/><br/>&lt;i&gt;Paul Geisert doesn’t believe in God, but he didn’t exactly want people to hate him for it. And so there he was, in the fall of 2002, contemplating plans to attend a march in Washington, D.C., organized to protest the overarching religious themes of September 11 memorials and tributes. A Sacramento resident since 1985, Geisert wanted to head east to participate in the demonstration but was aghast by the message its name implied. At best, he reasoned, the Godless Americans March on Washington was clueless. At worst, it was downright offensive.<br/><br/>That name, the longtime atheist remembers, left him feeling angry and defensive.<br/><br/>“I just went absolutely ballistic—here the [march organizer] is calling on everyone in the active atheist groups to march on Washington, and they call it ‘godless’—it was just like spitting in everybody’s face,” Geisert explains on a recent afternoon. The way Geisert saw it, the word godless is synonymous with “evil,” and its use was a surefire way to alienate the general public.<br/><br/>“Why would anyone want to call themselves something that was seen as evil? That ‘godless’ part just drove me nuts.’”<br/><br/>So the former science professor sat down and tried to think up a new term—one that was less divisive than godless but more inclusive than atheist.<br/><br/>The idea, he says, was to pick a word that would help public perception of atheists. Much as the term gay has largely replaced homosexual in the mainstream lexicon, Geisert wanted a word that would allow more atheists to feel comfortable being “out” with their viewpoints.<br/><br/>A few weeks later, after brainstorming thousands of ideas, he finally hit upon what he believed to be the perfect word: bright.&lt;/i&gt;<br/> The Brights logo is interesting...tag:atheistnexus.org,2010-02-26:2182797:Topic:7401192010-02-26T12:52:43.784ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
<p>Hi All,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Am I the only person who recognises the logo for this group as being very similar to the Egyptian Amarna period artistic representations of the sun god, the aten, around 1350BC.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a class="image" href="/wiki/File:Aten.svg"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="138" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Aten.svg/325px-Aten.svg.png" width="325"></img></a> <img alt="The Brights" class="groupicon" height="171" src="http://api.ning.com/files/K0XvuKX4bouNzmoKKgZAaMUXCCga4uA00v3kzWrvresiGQdCD7MrTBTQCIK83X0lf9zgyS5-OFQueFx9RB0LZM03QtGUcO7D/brightssquarelogometalonblack.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=171" width="171"></img></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's amusing that an atheist group has accidentally chosen a symbol which, during pharoah Akhenaten's reign, was used to represent the one true God...which was a massive break with…</p>
<p>Hi All,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Am I the only person who recognises the logo for this group as being very similar to the Egyptian Amarna period artistic representations of the sun god, the aten, around 1350BC.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a class="image" href="/wiki/File:Aten.svg"><img class="thumbimage" alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Aten.svg/325px-Aten.svg.png" width="325" height="138"/></a> <img class="groupicon" alt="The Brights" src="http://api.ning.com/files/K0XvuKX4bouNzmoKKgZAaMUXCCga4uA00v3kzWrvresiGQdCD7MrTBTQCIK83X0lf9zgyS5-OFQueFx9RB0LZM03QtGUcO7D/brightssquarelogometalonblack.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=171" width="171" height="171"/></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's amusing that an atheist group has accidentally chosen a symbol which, during pharoah Akhenaten's reign, was used to represent the one true God...which was a massive break with traditional egyptian spiritualism which had masses of gods. Pharoah Akhenaten threw out all the other gods and replaced them with this one sun/sun god and had this symbol carved everywhere he could. After he died it didn't take long for the old gods to be brought back and carvings like this were systematically virtually vandalised out of the historical record.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So..this is the symbol of the one true god, and/or the symbol for the atheistic Brights. :-)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> Media Response Teamtag:atheistnexus.org,2009-12-19:2182797:Topic:6555042009-12-19T23:12:32.093ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
Media and religious circles are all too eager to portray us brights as smug, militant atheists; fundamentalists with a pretentious name that implies all others are in some way dim or unintelligent.<br />
<br />
It is only by challenging these views, wherever they occur, that we shall raise the consciences of journalists and readers to the rampant and often violent prejudice that faces non-believers throughout the world.<br />
<br />
I for one would be happy to contribute to any comments page, petition, blog or website…
Media and religious circles are all too eager to portray us brights as smug, militant atheists; fundamentalists with a pretentious name that implies all others are in some way dim or unintelligent.<br />
<br />
It is only by challenging these views, wherever they occur, that we shall raise the consciences of journalists and readers to the rampant and often violent prejudice that faces non-believers throughout the world.<br />
<br />
I for one would be happy to contribute to any comments page, petition, blog or website that shows itself to be antagonistic, naive or ignorant of the nature of the brights movement; and I hope others will too.<br />
<br />
Just include the link and I'll be there. Numerologytag:atheistnexus.org,2009-11-02:2182797:Topic:5819962009-11-02T22:18:07.350ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
<a href="http://www.numerologist.com/?gclid=CIS9yJGl7Z0CFchn5QodA37BLg">http://www.numerologist.com/?gclid=CIS9yJGl7Z0CFchn5QodA37BLg</a><br />
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I love the advertisement saying "we're never wrong!"<br />
Let us see exactly how wrong they are and maybe flood the site with break downs of how wrong they actually where.<br />
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The proccess: first confirm your e-mail, I got this message after doing so:<br />
Congratulations!<br />
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Your first email should be on it's way to you any minute now, entitled "How To…
<a href="http://www.numerologist.com/?gclid=CIS9yJGl7Z0CFchn5QodA37BLg">http://www.numerologist.com/?gclid=CIS9yJGl7Z0CFchn5QodA37BLg</a><br />
<br />
Get a Free reading!<br />
I love the advertisement saying "we're never wrong!"<br />
Let us see exactly how wrong they are and maybe flood the site with break downs of how wrong they actually where.<br />
<br />
The proccess: first confirm your e-mail, I got this message after doing so:<br />
Congratulations!<br />
<br />
Your first email should be on it's way to you any minute now, entitled "How To Change Your Life With Numerology". This report details the various numbers in a numerology chart, showing how you can use them to change your life for the better.<br />
<br />
This will be followed by your free Numerology Chart, in which I'll examine your date of birth along with your given name, revealing specific things about you. You should recieve this via email by tomorrow.<br />
<br />
This will be followed by further tutorials delving deeper into your numerology chart. You can of course unsubscribe at any time, simply by clicking the link added to the bottom of each email (but I hope you don't, because I have a lot of valuable information about numerology to share with you).<br />
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to this email the report, "How To Change Your Life With Numerology".<br />
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Crazy damn yoo-hoo's. I'll let you know what my reading says when I get it. Concerning David Bentley Hart's "Atheist Delusions" and the review thereoftag:atheistnexus.org,2009-09-25:2182797:Topic:5182952009-09-25T04:16:24.410ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
This started out as a comment to <a href="http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/atheistnews/forum/topic/show?id=2182797%3ATopic%3A517911" target="_blank">this thread</a>, but soon grew into a short essay of its own. I therefore felt that it would be better to post it as it its own thread, linking to it from the original. Before posting, I looked through the groups to find the best place to post it, I hope this is the right place for this. Please read the original post before this. Please also note…
This started out as a comment to <a href="http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/atheistnews/forum/topic/show?id=2182797%3ATopic%3A517911" target="_blank">this thread</a>, but soon grew into a short essay of its own. I therefore felt that it would be better to post it as it its own thread, linking to it from the original. Before posting, I looked through the groups to find the best place to post it, I hope this is the right place for this. Please read the original post before this. Please also note that I have not read the book in question, only the review of it, but I found enough there to go on a long rant which has now carried me long into the next day (it is now 6:15 am were I am, in Stockholm, Sweden). My thoughts on the book as presented in the review follow.<br />
<br />
<br />
A lot of that irritated me. The only possibly good points he made concerned christianity's historical role in scientific advancement. I am no historian and so can not comment on the details of this, but it does seem possible that some scientists (and artists too for that matter) were motivated by their religious beliefs in a way that perhaps they would not have been were they not religious. We should be willing to investigate this objectively without going into arguments about the moral and philosophical issues of faith, so that we can reason about whether we would have come as far, not as far, or further, without christianity, with some other religion taking its place, or without any religion at all. This would be interesting as an historical investigation, and it is important to seperate this aspect of the relation between science and religion from the philosophical debate.<br />
<br />
Now, concerning the philosophical debate. Religious beliefs inevitably entail adherence to <i>some</i> dogma, whereas science does not. There is of course a world of difference between the modern vaguely christian deist and the fundamentalist, and the latter's beliefs are certainly far more detrimental to the scientific discourse that the former's, but even the former's belief system constitutes some sort of dogma (even if it is that person's self invented, well thought out dogma). Scientists, of course, are not immune to dogmatic thinking, and the ideal of science as a perfectly objectively unbiased investigation is not reality (one need only read <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/18773744/How-to-Publish-a-Scientific-Comment-in-1-2-3-Easy-Steps" target="_blank">this</a> to be disillusioned about that), but at least science as a <i>concept</i> does not refer to any dogma, only a method of obtaining explanations. Religion, on the other hand, even as a vague <i>concept</i> embodying the least common denominator of religious belief, entails <i>at the very least</i> a belief in some <i>thing</i> that is immaterial, outside the experimentally investigable world and which is believed in as a real thing, but with no justification that strengthens the likelyhood of the reality of said thing (the justification that ones beliefs make one feel good and safe has, of course, nothing to do with the reality of that which one believes in).<br />
<br />
This is where I take exception with his statement that "we have no real rational warrant for deploring the 'credulity' of the peoples of previous centuries toward the common basic assumptions of their times while implicitly celebrating ourselves for our own largely uncritical obedience to the common basic assumptions of our own". The lack of belief in something does not constitute an assumption! The move from belief to lack of belief is not some Kuhnian paradigm shift from one set of assumptions to another, with both paradigms equally supported or unsupported; it is progress from less justifiable statements (there is a creator) to more justifiable statements (there's neither evidence nor need for a creator). This is just like the move from a belief in physics in the ether to a disbelief in it. We can hardly blame scientists of the time for believing in something that seemed to be necessary to explain observable phenomena, but after Einstein came along, we made progress in our understanding and hence got rid of an unnecessary entity in our conceptual model (please bear with me if my short summary of this is faulty, I am no physicist). The "assumption" that the ether is not necessary is not comparable to the assumption that it exists, the fact that people before Einstein can be excused for believing in it does not excuse present day people for believing in it.<br />
<br />
As for his apparent claims that secularism is to blame for Stalin and Pol Pot, this argument is so old and so stupid that I no longer know what to do with myself upon reading it. Secularism, just as disbelief, does not constitute anything other than a prescription not to take a stand on the ontological status of deities. In the case of disbelief, the prescription applies to the individual, in the case of secularism, to government. Hence, secularism can not be blamed for any doctrine since it is itself not a doctrine. On the contrary, the totalitarian states mentioned are run like religious organizations, only without the superstition. North Korea is the perfect example which is, in the words of Christopher Hitchens, "one figure short of a trinity" (having a father, who is still after death the true ruler, and a son, thus lacking only the holy ghost). Religious institutions on the other hand, rely on a whole lot of doctrines written down in their respective holy books. Even modern, moderate christians must acknowledge that the bible endorses tyranny, genocide and rape, even if they personally do not subscribe to the values in those particular passages of the book. Crimes commited in the name of religion may be in part due to faults of man, but they are also in large part due to the religion in the name of which the crimes are being committed. This is not the case when it comes to secularism.<br />
<br />
A final point of error (final in my rebuttal, probably not in the short review of the book, and almost certainly not in the book itself) concerns the old myth that morality is somehow intricately connected to religious belief, and that it is (at least in part) these moral values that are being attacked by atheists, either explicitly (this misconception seems based on the idea that an attack on god given moral absolutes constitutes an attack on any concept of morals) or implicitly (which in the mindset of some people is inevitable since the fall of god would cause the concept of morals to tumble down along with him). This becomes evident in at least two places:<br />
* First, when Hart writes ironically about the "Christian 'superstition' that every life is of immeasurable value". When nonbelievers speak about superstition it refers to belief in actual entities such as gods or demons or angels, not moral and humanitarian concepts such as the equal value of all people.<br />
* Second, when he writes about the supposed hope that christianity offers, but which is apparently lacking in atheism. First of all, I feel a need to <i>again</i> mention the impossibility of attaching any set of values to simple disbelief since it is not a doctrine, it is therefore impossible to make any claim as to whether atheism delivers hope or not. The only real questions regarding the relationship between religous belief or lack thereof, and the presence or absence of hope in an individual, are the question of whether there can be religious adherents without hope and the question of whether there can be nonbelievers with hope. The answer to the latter question seems obvious. Surely people without religious beliefs can find hope in the possibility of a happy life? The latter question is equally simple to answer. We need only one example: Mother Teresa. A woman who, as we learned after her death, not only struggled with serious doubts (as I suspect many christians do), but actually proclaimed an utter inability to believe, thus finding, apparently, no hope. Readers wanting to argue that this contradicts my earlier claims of the possibility of hope without belief need consider the faith Mother Teresa had been indoctrinated in, which claims the impossibility of just that, probably rendering her unable to find hope without faith. Seeing thus that there is no intricate connection between faith and hope, the only possible connection would be one of tendency. By this I mean to refer to the possibility that religious adherents are more prone to hopefulness than nonbelievers. This is possible but should not be assumed (which we can say with certainty must be the weakest possible assumption we could interpret from Hart's statements, a stronger one being the assumption of an intricate connection, meaning the absolute impossibility of hopeful nonbelievers), instead, an empirical study would need to be conducted to see whether such a connection exists. (If anyone knows of such a study, please inform me of it.)<br />
<br />
In conclusion, if Hart wants to argue that the so called new atheists are misrepresenting history, putting too much blame upon, and not giving enough credit to, christianity, then he can do so, and I'm sure the discussion will be very interesting and enlightening. As to the rest of his attempted rebuttal of the arguments of atheists, it is very poorly done. Funny/despicable religious quotestag:atheistnexus.org,2009-08-08:2182797:Topic:4513572009-08-08T00:19:08.937ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
I am writing a book promoting the atheist/freethinker/bright worldview and seek your help. One chapter is dedicated to revealing religious quotes. Three examples:<br />
<br />
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."<br />
George H.W. Bush<br />
<br />
"Whatever the natural cause, sin is the true cause of all earthquakes."<br />
John Wesley (1703-1791)<br />
<br />
"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim…
I am writing a book promoting the atheist/freethinker/bright worldview and seek your help. One chapter is dedicated to revealing religious quotes. Three examples:<br />
<br />
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."<br />
George H.W. Bush<br />
<br />
"Whatever the natural cause, sin is the true cause of all earthquakes."<br />
John Wesley (1703-1791)<br />
<br />
"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin."<br />
“Saint” Robert Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621), at the trial of Galileo.<br />
<br />
Would you be kind enough to share some of your favorites with me? I would really appreciate it. The Name "Brights"...tag:atheistnexus.org,2009-08-07:2182797:Topic:4510582009-08-07T20:52:10.721ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
By definition I am a bright. However, I hate the name. Why are Brights not naturalists, which is more descriptive, accurate, and less cocky sounding. Where does the term come from and why do people like it?
By definition I am a bright. However, I hate the name. Why are Brights not naturalists, which is more descriptive, accurate, and less cocky sounding. Where does the term come from and why do people like it? Why is there so much of terror in this country?tag:atheistnexus.org,2009-06-23:2182797:Topic:3889682009-06-23T14:39:04.736ZCarlos Antonio Galeano Rioshttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/CarlosAntonioGaleanoRios
Any honest, rational and impartial person is against terrorism. We sincerely wish that all this mindless killings should come to an end. Why is there so much of terror in this country?<br />
Let us first take the case of this state – West Bengal.<br />
During the last 32 years of Left-front rule, 45000 people were killed.<br />
###<br />
The surprising fact is that most of the political parties of India are up against terrorism and are ever ready to implement ‘stringent anti-terrorism measures’ to combat terrorism. At…
Any honest, rational and impartial person is against terrorism. We sincerely wish that all this mindless killings should come to an end. Why is there so much of terror in this country?<br />
Let us first take the case of this state – West Bengal.<br />
During the last 32 years of Left-front rule, 45000 people were killed.<br />
###<br />
The surprising fact is that most of the political parties of India are up against terrorism and are ever ready to implement ‘stringent anti-terrorism measures’ to combat terrorism. At the same time, these very political parties themselves are nothing but terrorist groups. In 1996, Amnesty International had presented a report. On investigating upon 150 countries, they identified 82 nations where the state machinery resorted to ‘terrorism’ as a routine practice. The governments of all these countries use the following methods as part of their administration—kidnapping, killing in cold blood in the name of ‘encounter’ with police or military, illegally detaining indefinitely without filing case, not allowing to take legal help, entering the house at night without search-warrant, arresting without the presence of witness and then claiming to have found weapons or objectionable papers with the arrested person, -- these are examples of dirty criminal acts perpetrated by the states.<br />
India is one among these 82 nations identified by Amnesty Intl.<br />
‘State terrorism’ is severe in the North-eastern states – Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, in Kashmir in Northern India, in Chhattisgarh in central India and in Andhra Pradesh in South. The atrocities carried out by the state machinery are unimaginable. The gravity of it is beyond the comprehension of people outside these regions. It is more so because the media are never truly impartial. They have to toe the line of the ruling party or the rich and powerful opposition. It is these media who truncate the name “Public Committee against Police Atrocities” (PCAPA) to make it only “Public Committee”. The words ‘police atrocities’ probably sound too harsh to them!<br />
‘Public Committee against Police Atrocities’<br />
It was an afternoon on November 2008. ; the Maoists triggered an explosion aiming at the convoy of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattecharya but they missed.After this incident, the police started massive operation and arbitrary arrests.<br />
Under the leadership of Police Superintendent of West Midnapur district, they entered tribal houses some 70 kilometers away from the spot and arrested some schoolboys of 7th and 8th class, an old retired schoolteacher and some others as ‘suspected Maoists’. During this action they reportedly roughed up tribal women – the male police force manhandled and molested them, abused with vulgar threats.<br />
The suppressed grievance of the long deprived local people exploded after this criminal offence. The poor tribal populace of the region united and formed the ‘Public Committee against Police Atrocities’. Their main demand was that – the Police Super and the misbehaving police personnel have to come to the Tribal village and publicly apologize for their mistake and misdemeanor.<br />
Now, the West Bengal government always appears as the savior of the police whenever they are in trouble. We have seen it before – in Singur, Nandigram, Khejuri, Memari in Burdwan and in case of the hapless Rizwanur. So, when the PCAPA made their demand, the Chief Secretary of Buddha government called a press conference and announced – that there could be no question of apologizing.<br />
The self-respecting poor tribal people could not digest this kind of arrogance. They started a movement – PCAPA—and are continuing it for the following eight months. The leader of the committee, Sri Chhatradhar Mahato pointed out that some of the media are diverting attention from the police by shortening the name to just ‘People’s Committee’, ignoring the point of Police atrocities.<br />
We saw on television that Chhatradhar and the common people of Lalgarh considered the Maoists as their friends, who came as their savior.<br />
In eight months Lalgarh saw progress that did not happen in the past 32 years.<br />
<br />
Some able and sympathetic people came forward to help the PCAPA. They showed them the way to become self-reliant, to unite and work together to make self-ruled villages. The villagers joined hands to work together and made unimaginable progress in a few months. What the left-front government failed to do in 32 years, they did in 8 months –claims Chhatradhar. A 60 feet deep reservoir to store water for irrigation, miles of canals cleaned and channeled to the fields, tube-wells in villages for drinking water, 50 kilometers of solid gravel road that saved them a long detour to go to the nearest Midnapore town; these are some of their achievements. A health centre with a doctor is also set up by them. All this has been done by the villagers themselves without any help from the state.<br />
It is only natural that the cruel and fascist CPI (M) government will call these people ‘Maoists’ or ‘Terrorists’.<br />
But the tribal Adivasis (literal meaning = original inhabitants) call them friends. It is the ‘Police people’ that are the ‘real enemies’; no, not even hunger and poverty. They have learnt to live with them. It is further torture and humiliation that infuriate them.<br />
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In India infested with terrorists, the CPI (M) is the largest terrorist group<br />
In the past 32 years, there have been 45000 political killings. Of that 40000 have been perpetrated by the ruling party CPI (M). In cruelty, comparable only to the Nazis, this outfit has carried out genocide in Marichjhapi, Naxalbari, Sainbari, Kashipur, Baranagar, Beliaghata, Dhantala, Bantala, Ghoksadanga, Keshpur, Garbeta, Arambag, Nandigram etc during their long tenure. The cruelty of these massacres was unimaginable.<br />
Even after all this, why the Central government is not taking steps to ban this party is a mystery. Is it because in future they may again have to tie the knot with this party at the centre? The party that believes in genocide as a political weapon should be banned in the state at least!<br />
The reader must be wondering why all these facts were not made public so long. It is mainly because of the left inclined media owners and intellectuals who were in some way indebted to the leftist government.<br />
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An example of an ideal ‘terrorist’ state<br />
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18 June, 2009: To suppress the terrorist upheaval the state police and the central armed forces have jointly entered the jungle-covered Lalgarh, the poorest region of West Bengal.<br />
Quoting from the first page of daily paper Bartaman – a tribal woman Usharani from Kuldiha says – “On Friday afternoon, I sat with two morsels of rice to feed my child. Police came, kicked and broke open the door. They entered in a group, kicked and overturned the plate of rice. They ransacked and broke everything in the house. We are Maoists, they said. They threw everything we had – plates, vessels, sacks of rice and daal – everything into the well. Before leaving they threatened to sexually abuse me”.<br />
The experience is more or less the same in households in the villages of Kuldiha, Goaldanga, Kankshol, Malida, Sarberia, Peyarakuli, Pechapora and 40 others like them. The people all belong to Tribal community or aborigines of the place. Police and centralforces manhandled the women, lifting their saris in the name of frisking, beating with lathis, and ridiculed them offering their services at night in the absence of their husbands. In some places, they urinated in the wells or put their excreta rendering them unfit for drinking.<br />
Next day we saw the shocking picture (Times of India) of local boys being made to look for landmines, while the police personnel were behind them with their weapons. This is a definite case of gross violation of human rights.<br />
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What is going on? Is it warfare?<br />
Are Indian soldiers fighting with their own countrymen?<br />
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Now if any foreigner questions the very character of our Nation, and calls it a terrorist state, do we have a reply?<br />
THIS ARTICLE IS PREPARED ON BASIS OF AN INTERVIEW OF PRABIR GHOSH,THE GENERAL SECRETARY, 'SCIENCE AND RATIONALIST'S ASSOCIATION OF INDIA'.